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In the quest to master the nuclear fuel magnetic levitation, which finally led to the Figure 3. PNM activities and their insertion in the
cycle, it was necessary to develop a technol- production of nuclear fuel pellets. Figure 2 SCPN acquisition program, PROSUB
ogy for obtaining and isotopic enrichment below illustrates the stages of the cycle, and Navy Nuclear Program - PNM
of uranium hexafluoride with centrifuges the prospecting, mining and processing part
entirely built in Brazil. The enrichment took is fully in charge of the company Indústrias Domain of the Nuclear Development and Construction
Fuel Cycle
of Nuclear Propulsion
place through ultracentrifugation obtained Nucleares do Brasil – INB, a partner of MB in
by the successful Brazilian technology of the field of the nuclear fuel cycle. Obtaining the Fuel Construction of LABGENE
Elements and Support (Onshore Prototype of the
Figure 2. Scheme of the complete nuclear fuel cycle Infrastructure Embedded Nuclear Plant - PNE)
developed by PNM and INB Obtaining the SCPN

NAVY NUCLEAR PROGRAM
PROGRAMA NUCLEAR DA MARINHA
COMPLETE FUEL CYCLE
CICLO COMPLETO DO COMBUSTÍVEL
NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
PROSPECTION, MINING AND T E C N OL OG I A N A C I ON A L Source: Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB), Braziian Navy (2022)
PROSPECÇÃO, MINERAÇÃO E
IMPROVEMENT CONVERSÃO
BENEFICIAMENTO
CONVERSION
>> >>
LABGENE will be the first power reactor Figure 4. Detail of the
ENRICHMENT designed and built in the country, a small, demonstrative unit of desalination
ENRIQUECIMENTO
pressurized water reactor (PWR), which in via membrane distillation of the
>>
DEPOSIT Laboratory of Technologies in
DEPÓSITO
>> the future may be adapted for dual use, in a
NUCLEAR SUBMARINE modular way, providing energy and water, Sustainable Energies, LATES-IPqM.
SUBMARINO NUCLEAR
>> >> >> via desalination, to regions with low levels
and/or low quality of water resources.
ELECTRIC This concept motivated the proposal in
GERAÇÃO
POWER >> >>
DE ENERGIA
GENERATION 2016 of the DESSAL project, involving CNEN
ELÉTRICA
RECONVERSION AND and its Institutes, the Brazilian Navy, and UFRJ
RECONVERSÃO E FABRICAÇÃO
MANUFACTURE OF THE
DO ELEMENTO COMBUSTÍVEL
FUEL ELEMENT (COTTA et al., Nuclear Connection, 2019).
Source: Brazilian Navy (2019) The analyses carried out made it possible to
estimate, from a reactor similar to the LAB-
The technology of enrichment by ultra- naval propulsion plant, at the Laboratory GENE, generating 75 MWt, the production
centrifugation employing magnetic levitation for the Generation of Nucleoelectric En- of more than 130,000 m3/day of desalinat-
allowed the construction of nine cascades of ergy - LABGENE, a crucial development to ed water, which for a typical consumption of
ultracentrifuges that today equip the INB. A reach the embedded nuclear plant (PNE), about 110 liters/person/day, would allow to
further 30 cascades are expected to be deliv- to be incorporated to the conventional meet more 1.2 million people and/or alter-
ered by 2030, which will make it+ possible to nuclear-powered submarine – SCPN, as natively other industrial and agro-industrial
supply fuel to all our nuclear plants, current- provided for in the environment devel- uses. In addition to the more conventional
ly only partially supplied by fuel produced in opment program (Submarine Construc- desalination techniques, UFRJ, in collabo-
Brazil, and also to export it. tion Program – PROSUB). Figure 3 below ration with the Navy Research Institute and
On its other side, the PNM is building illustrates the correlation between PNM its partners, develop membrane distillation
the prototype on land of a reactor and a and PROSUB. processes that make use of rejected heat, Source: Brazilian Navy (2021)

Nuclear Technologies for the Sea 543
542 BLUE ECONOMIY Nuclear Technologies for the Sea 543